❓ Hon. C.L. Edwardes requests the Minister table credit card invoices for the past six months, but the Minister declines due to the substantial resources required, citing existing audit processes and offering to investigate specific concerns.
AnsweredQoN 1672Legislative Assembly
Asked
17 June 2003
Member
Portfolio
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; the Midwest, Wheatbelt and Great Southern
QuestionView source ↗
(b) in the interest of open, accountable and transparent Government, will the Minister table copies of the invoices for each card for the past six months?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
13 August 2003
Responded by
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; the Midwest, Wheatbelt and Great Southern
Response time
57 days
(a)All expenditure, including that by credit card, is subject to regular periodic testing under the Department of the Premier and Cabinet’s internal audit program in accordance with Part XII of the Treasurer’s Instructions accompanying the
Financial Administration and Audit Act 1985.
The latest internal audit of expenditure for the Department was completed on 17 June 2003. The testing indicated that there were adequate controls in place over the Department’s credit card expenditure.
External review of departmental transactions, including credit card expenditure, is also undertaken by the Office of the Auditor General as part of that Office’s audit cycle.
It would not be possible to ascertain when individual credit card usage was audited without reviewing working papers of both the internal and external audit functions. For example, credit card purchases may be included on a sample basis in transactional testing of expenditure performed by both internal and external audit.
(b)It would be necessary for the Department to devote substantial staff resources to identifying, locating and duplicating thousands of invoices attached to hundreds of credit card statements across all Ministerial offices to comply with this request, I am not prepared to direct the Department to use resources for this purpose but if the Member has a particular concern about usage of a credit card I would be pleased to consider arranging for the Department to provide information on that particular credit card.
Financial Administration and Audit Act 1985.
The latest internal audit of expenditure for the Department was completed on 17 June 2003. The testing indicated that there were adequate controls in place over the Department’s credit card expenditure.
External review of departmental transactions, including credit card expenditure, is also undertaken by the Office of the Auditor General as part of that Office’s audit cycle.
It would not be possible to ascertain when individual credit card usage was audited without reviewing working papers of both the internal and external audit functions. For example, credit card purchases may be included on a sample basis in transactional testing of expenditure performed by both internal and external audit.
(b)It would be necessary for the Department to devote substantial staff resources to identifying, locating and duplicating thousands of invoices attached to hundreds of credit card statements across all Ministerial offices to comply with this request, I am not prepared to direct the Department to use resources for this purpose but if the Member has a particular concern about usage of a credit card I would be pleased to consider arranging for the Department to provide information on that particular credit card.
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